Lady Cyrilynn's daily routine, when in residence, varied little from day to day, as Serai had cause to know. Upon their arrival back to her mistress's estate, they plunged in to the familiar and the safe. She had known her lady was shaken badly by her encounter with the Tremere wizard but hadn't truly guessed how much until they'd touched on English soil. She, herself, had been frightened to the core.

Both of them had stepped from the plane's interior and, while Serai had taken in lungfuls of country air, her lady had merely walked down the jet's steps and paused, staring for some time at the bulk of the large mansion silhouetted against the almost moonless night sky. She'd held that stance for quite a bit of time before turning introspective eyes to her handmaiden. [i:65a01b4517]"Let's go home."[/i:65a01b4517] was all she'd spoken.

From that point on, it was a round of attending to their routine exercise bouts in the private gym, an hour's meditation afterward, followed by a hurried meal for Serai to break her fast, then three hours of estate matters and management before another meal break. Most of which was largely paying bills, settling disputes, seeing to repairs of the rental properties, collecting those rents, interviewing new residents, checking investments, answering mails with petitions and requests for contributions.

The Tzimisce donated largely to orphanages for pre-teenage children, some through direct funding and others through indirect, but she gave to at least a dozen of them. They were her private stalking grounds. Not that her lady ever slaughtered indiscrimanantly or blantantly. Her Sire, so she claimed, had taught her a great amount of restraint and, unless a child was truly lost to this world, she made sure her feastings were small and wide spread enough to not call attention to anything untoward. After all, these were to be her future canvasses and loyal retainers and she took every possible care of them.

Granted the ghoul could have easily handled it all but Lady C. liked to keep herself involved in her own holdings, to be aware of happenings in her private world, making decisions only on things that required her personal authorization. She left the small details to her managers as some things never transcended traditions.

All of this had left them too exhausted to do more then fall into their shared bed and sleep for the week it took to conclude everything. Which was just one more thing to chafe at the apprehensive woman. In addition to the terrors of this last commission (which had borne out Serai's original misgivings), she'd seen the look of lust in the vampire's eyes when she first beheld that wanton Egyptian hussy! Then she'd looked at her own creation, her lover and closest servant, and the look of consternation had flickered in her gaze. Serai had felt flawed and unfinished, her beauty paled by comparison. Jealousy simmered in her veins.

The business woman in her could understand the necessity of attending to long delayed affairs but the last two nights had left the sensual animal in her panting after unsated desires. Cyrilynn had neither used her nor made any covert overtures that would have lead to a mutually satisfying session for them both. Instead, she'd been withdrawn and brooding, had taken to sleeping alone. This, in turn, had the ghoul wondering if her lover was beginning to tire of her. Hurt was fueling the jealousy.

Then Lady Cyrilynn had set the pot of those seething questions on the fire to boil unattended. She'd ordered her handmaid to begin the task of grooming their newest acquisition in the duties of a personal servant. HER personal servant!! Serai had never sought after a maid of her own nor did she need one now. What she dared not contemplate, but couldn't escape from, was the possibility that her mistress was replacing her. Panic fed the black void of the hurt.

And what of the Tzimisce's promise to Embrace her? Make her her childe as she had made Serai her ardent lover? Was that nothing more than a fevered dream? The rose imprinted in blood pixels on her breast made a mockery of that idea. But when she'd tried to ask questions about it with her lady, she'd been rebuffed heavily and forebear to try again any tiime soon. Had Cyrilynn lied to her? Lies had now become the propellant for panic.

There was only one thing in life that Serai wanted. And that was an unlife as Cyrilynn's childe. She'd coveted that place since she'd first been handed over to her new mistress by her mother. She was a child of servants to the great lady and knew her place in the world, but looking into the vampire's cold, assessing eyes, she knew she'd find more than a life of drudgery and boredom and she hungered for it! Now, after more than 40 yrs. of service, dedication, study and sacrifice, she was about to lose it all. And she didn't know how to fight to keep it!!

Cyrilynn's thoughts, of late, had been much occupied by the past month. Much of her plans and her future had been altered too much for redemption and now she needed new avenues of interest, new goals to give meaning to her existence. Certainly she had her abiding hatred, and desire for revenge on, the Sabbat as well as her researches and studies into poisons but beyond that, what did her unlife hold for her? She had much to think on and once the estate's business was settled she gave herself up to making some decisions.

Those ruminations lead her to exploring that tenuous bond with her regnant. Like a child worrying a loose tooth, she plucked at it daily until she had examined it from all aspects. Experiencing what Serai herself, and all the other ghouls under her auspices, had lived with for decades. She wasn't sure she liked any part of it. She vowed she'd never do this again, knowing what she now knew.

She was aware, in a eerie layover of her own bond with Julius, of her ghoul's restlessness and growing anxiety. But it was muted and fleeting and she couldn't seem to put her finger on what was wrong. She and her lover needed some time for themselves and she would make sure that they had it soon but she needed to take the next two days to tie up loose ends and close down the operations of The Scorpion.

Serai paced alongside the transformed child as they made their way down the hallway and across the threshhold of the Green Parlor's doorway. Lady Cyrilynn stood looking out the double french doors that opened out onto the terrace and from there onto the perfectly manicured English lawn, awash in the evening's twilight. [i:0a34e1668c]"We've come at your request, my lady."[/i:0a34e1668c] The ghoul looked down on raven black hair as she leaned over and gave the girl a slight push toward her mistress.

Cyrilynn turned to acknowledge their presence with a nod at her assistant and then watched as the small figure approached with hesitant steps. Her uniform of a white, long-sleeved, unadorned blouse and navy skirt, that reached mid-calf, whispered softly against high-topped, white frilled socks and black unassuming shoes. The newest member of their household stopped just three feet shy of the silver haired woman and bobbed a proper curtsey.

The lady raised her eyebrow at Serai, [i:0a34e1668c]"I take it she has proven to be an apt pupil? She seems to have learned her manners well."[/i:0a34e1668c] The Tzimisce walked about the adolescent body before her, viewing her posture and deportment avidly. The child didn't move or retreat. Her head turned fractionally to follow her new owner, then stilled to stare forward again.

[i:0a34e1668c]"I am pleased with her progress...... the staff has done well. Have those who've had the care and training of her meet me in my private parlor tonight after their main meal. There will be a bonus for them."[/i:0a34e1668c] She looked her handmaiden fully in the eye, [i:0a34e1668c]"As for you, I want you to join me in the privacy room tonight when your duties are discharged and you are free."[/i:0a34e1668c] Serai felt the blast of anticipation heat her and give a quick acknowledgement of their promised tryst, hope blossoming anew, her worries consigned to the back of her mind.

Cyrilynn turned back to the new daughter and the servant was left to her burgeoning fantasies, [i:af7a26f2ee]"Now, what is your name, girl?" "My name is Dorotea."[/i:af7a26f2ee] She quickly tacked on the almost forgotten honorific, [i:af7a26f2ee]"Ma'am."[/i:af7a26f2ee] Lady C. pursed her lips and swung away, only to take two steps closer to her attendant and settle into a chair to Serai's left. [i:af7a26f2ee]"Come here."[/i:af7a26f2ee] She demanded and Dorotea once more crossed to stand in front of her hostess.

The vampiress took the youthful hands into her own and, rapidly dominating her, ordered her to answer every one of the questions put to her truthfully and as fully as she could, obeying all orders and then to forget the session past the asking of her name as soon as she was told to do so. Then her lady began the task of drawing out the life this young girl had lead previously.

It didn't take long to draw Dorotea's tale from her. It was a familiar story of most children of a mixed American-Mexican heritage, except Dorotea had lived a slightly better life. A privileged existence cut short by crime rivalry and misjudged opportunities. The child's mother had thought she was sending her baby away to a safer environment. She'd never find out, now, how much she'd failed.

[i:af7a26f2ee]"Tell me, child, if you could ask for anything at all, what would you like to have?"[/i:af7a26f2ee] The question was designed to find a controlling hunger from the person questioned. The carrot that would ensure cooperation and peak performance. But the girl's answer fell right into the vampire's ultimate plans for her latest project. And the lady wasn't adverse to having a vessel's goals and her own running side by side. [i:af7a26f2ee]"I want to be pretty.[/i:af7a26f2ee]

[i:af7a26f2ee]"And why would you wish to have beauty, my dear? Wouldn't you rather have a dog or a doll, even new dresses?"[/i:af7a26f2ee] The lady raised one eyebrow but didn't even betray one glimmer of the sudden alertness that gripped her. In her intent upon the child before her, she missed the stiffening of her handmaiden's spine and the brief narrowing of her eyes. Silence reigned as the young girl struggled for the words to explain her desire.

Finally, the words spilled rapidly from those fledgling lips, as if afraid that what she uttered would not be taken seriously. [i:af7a26f2ee]"Because if I was pretty and beautiful, my daddy would want me!"[/i:af7a26f2ee] Tears threatened and for the first time since she'd entered the room, Dorotea turned her eyes downward. The lower lip quivered minutely and then she sniffed once. Raising her eyes, she continued, [i:af7a26f2ee]"I heard Maria's and Estrella's father say that they were so lovely, that any daddy would want them for his little girls."[/i:af7a26f2ee] There was a lost look on the young face.

[i:af7a26f2ee]"Ah, my dear child. If I could grant you this wish, would you stay and be my Serai's assistant?. Learn all she could teach you, do what we ask of you, study hard, keep yourself fit and healthy? Be brave, even though it sometimes hurts?"[/i:af7a26f2ee] The words rolled from the Tzimisce's tongue in solemn, serious cadence. The 12 yr. old nodded in an equally grave fashion but her silvered eyes shone with delight at the promised reward.

[i:af7a26f2ee]"Now, little one, I want you to do something for me. This is a test to see if you can do what is asked of you, despite some pain. I will tell you that there will be a small amount but it will be quickly over with. Can you do that?"[/i:af7a26f2ee] The head nodded warily but steadily. [i:af7a26f2ee]"Good. Now, close your eyes."[/i:af7a26f2ee] The lids dropped heavily and remaind there as the Tzimisce began to probe at the skeletal structure. There were twinges as the vampire began exerting her skill to change the basic bone structure to grow in the direction she wanted but the female held fast.

She could have altered the basic framework immediately but it would have been warped with each passing day, as the living tissue made it's own wishes known. Once the full growth potential was reached, the real work would begin. But like most artists, Cyrilynn knew that a good canvas needed proper preparation to create a masterpiece. She was more than willing to invest the effort. After all she had all the time in the world before her.

Serai had dressed carefully, as instructed, in the black leather merry-widow and high topped boots, but she paced their playroom like a caged and angry panther. Her mistress demanded poise, breeding and courtesy at all times when they were out in "public", which was usually whenever anyone else was around but this, their private sanctum, was the one place Serai could let go of the utter control she was required to keep as her lady's pincipal handmaid.

Here she could be anything and everything they both wanted and craved. Earlier, the ghoul had been swiftly and ruthlessly expelled from her reveries by Dorotea's answer and the naked obession that she'd seen on her lover's face. It didn't take much to add two and two together and come up with Khemintiri's seductive symmetry. Damn the woman!! How dared she cast her aside for the sake of a new play toy!!?? Pacing, again, in ever increasing turmoil, she halted before a rack of sharpened knives and snatched up the first one that one that glinted at her.

Rogan's likeness had been resurrected once more, in the interest of making Serai's time with Cyrilynn a special treat. The man had been her ghoul's first solo session at interrogation and she'd enjoyed it immensely. Her notes had been quite thorough and detailed and the vampire had marveled at the younger woman's inventiveness. The assassin also was aware that the deceased Sabbat male had aroused Serai's lust to a new height. Therefore, she thought to please her favorite with a treat, a token of her approval for all the assistant had been through and done under such duress in Marseille.

The approach to their special chamber was darkened but the vampire's excellent vision had no real need for artificial light here in the hall. The door was shut but Cyrilynn could feel the thrumm of anticipation from her lover, knew that she too could sense her presence and that she waited beyond the door. It had been too long since they'd indulged themselves and the Tzimisce licked her lips in anticipation as she strode along.

The chamber itself contained a large four-poster bed with velvet and silk ties. The rest of the room held racks with everything from whips and knives to a glowing brazier with small pokers. One wall even sported well-placed fetters that would spread-eagle any sized body [b:97e423d6ca]very[/b:97e423d6ca] securely. A small screen masked an alcove that housed various forms of dress and non-dress.

Everything from Serai's dominatrix attire to diaphanous harem apparel. Anything that was needed to set the mood. Lady C. certainly hoped that Serai had left her hair unbound for tonight. She so enjoyed wrapping her hands in the satiny feel of it. With this longing at the forefront, she stepped into the room. Only to have her right arm caught up from behind and jerked upwards, causing the male body to have to rise on tiptoe to relieve the pain in the shoulder. A muscular female arm, clutching a knife in a fist, snaked around the squat neck to place a keen edge against Rogan's throat. Keen enough to draw a spot of blood. The door was kicked shut with a [b:97e423d6ca]*SLAM*[/b:97e423d6ca]!

Another jerk and a forceful push had the captive slapping up against a bricked wall, causing the sensuous lips to split and a narrow trickle of crimson fluid to leak from them. Again a jerk to the tortured arm and the man was spun around and pinioned, knife to the throat again, by the female who controlled him now. Her lips slammed into his with a brutal kiss that came away smeared with his blood. He licked his lips, healing the tiny lesion. The knife had stayed where it was but had cut into the tender flesh of the jugular just a bit more.

The action should have cooled Serai's bubbling emotions but it only added to them and she hissed up at him in strident fury. Cyrilynn-Rogan looked into eyes that had were so dark brown as to be almost black but they burned so intensely that she expected them to burst into flaming orbs at any moment. Auspex showed an aura that was reddish-purple shot through with spikes of deep red. [i:57dff0303b]"Serai, I........."[/i:57dff0303b]

A growl sounded from those ruby lips just below the crooked line of his nose and another minor [b:57dff0303b]*slam*[/b:57dff0303b] convinced her that the ghoul was sincere, that this was NOT their usual foreplay. [i:57dff0303b]"Shut up! Just shut up until I give you leave to speak, you bitch!!"[/i:57dff0303b] A frisson of fear brought instant arousal and an escalating sexual tension. Which, in turn, seemed to push the ghoul over some kind of threshhold.

With a growl so feral, that had Lady Cyrilynn thinking Serai had somehow developed a beast of her own, she began a frenzy that sent the Tzimisce on a spiraling excitement hitherto unknown between them. Knowing that the bond of master and thrall would only allow actions that would please a ghoul's dominant, Cyrilynn simply gloried in this new aspect of her handmaid that had been hidden all these years.

With another hiss of steaming rage, Serai tore the shirt from Rogan's body, savagely tossing it aside, then tripped the unsuspecting legs with a sweeping kick to the back of the knees. And followed the hostage down to the floor, landing astride the hips. The engorged bulge in the now straining jeans could not have been mistaken for anything other than what it was and a demonic light flared in the woman's eyes as she surveyed the form spreadeagled beneath her. The knife, still grasped in a white-knuckled grip, trembled.

She began with little stinging slices here and there. When Cyrilynn went to reach toward her lover, she snarled a warning [i:57dff0303b]"Don't move. Don't even [/i:57dff0303b][b:57dff0303b]think[/b:57dff0303b][i:57dff0303b] of anything else but what I tell you to!!"[/i:57dff0303b] An evil smile graced the countenance above as the carving began in earnest and left them both panting and sweating. Wanting more.

Ripples ran down the mutilated torso and spread down the arms as Cyrilynn strained to keep from flipping her attacker beneath her and taking what she so ardently desired. Serai was still inflamed and in need of venting that fury somewhere. Cyrilynn was more than willing to prolong this activity until she'd worn down her barriers and emptied herself of the poisons that drove her.

Finally sated with the present form of lovemaking, Serai quickly cut away the remainder of Rogan's pants and took into her body the one thing that could begin to ease the ache in her own belly. Riding him hard, she leaned over the blood smeared chest and began her own brand of feeding. Soon lost to the building ecstasy of the lapped blood, she was unaware that Cyrilynn had curved arms around the straining woman's waist and rocking body.

Had lifted them both from the cold stone floor and carried them to the bed, only to continue the action there in reversed order. Serai's eyes were closed in a fierce grimace of concentration and her head thrashed from side to side. Rogan bent over her right breast and sank fangs deep into the succulent flesh above where the rose tattoo was branded into the skin and began suckling. The doubly exquisite torment of a ghoul's feeding coupled with the delirium of a vampire's kiss left the handmaiden with one long orgasm that shattered and scattered all barriers and drowned all other insignificant emotions.

Rogan's body followed her up that soaring path with one last long thrust, burying himself to the hilt, then collapsing upon her limp form with a sated moan. A few minutes later he rolled to her side, dragging her with him, looking to find the same joy etched there that was on his own features. Only to discover her face awash in rivulets of tears that sprang from still closed eyes. Rogan-Cyrilynn reached both hands to frame the woman's weeping visage and the touch alone was enough to cause her to curl up against the hairy chest, sobbing as if her soul was lost.

[i:05a1b7d746]"Did you think I wouldn't notice, wouldn't [b:05a1b7d746]know[/b:05a1b7d746] what you were going to do? Why are you replacing me in your servitude, in your affections? Did you think I was unhappy being your personal ghoul? Cyrilynn, can't you see how happy I am, being with you?[/i:05a1b7d746] [b:05a1b7d746]"I LOVE YOU!"[/b:05a1b7d746] The partially muffled words ended on a keening cry, the wail of a lost child that plucked certain strands of both her own Julius-bond and that of her own blood bond with her ghoul.

Rogan's arms cradled the distraught woman and soothed up and down her back in comforting strokes. It slowly dawned on the Tzimisce that what she was experiencing, what had finally awakened in her, was what Elzbet had tried to explain and what the Tremere had deplored as a lack in her character. So this, she thought, was compassion.

She shook her head has Serai's whimpers eventually calmed into the deep and even breathing of exhausted sleep. She would never be able to return the ardor this fragile ego had handed to her but she could cherish her childe-to-be for the brief time she would have left with her. Once she too was a creature of the dark, she would drift away to an unlife of her own, find her own ghoul to nurture and, perhaps, the one meaning in her life amongst the kindred.

Cyrilynn cuddled her handmaid closer to her side and covered her with a sheet to keep her warmed. And made a mental note to herself to bring Serai up to date on all her plans and projects. She would have to break the news that she couldn't Embrace Serai until she'd gained permission from her own regnant. The act would leave her child-to-be free of the wizard's influence and the thrall couldn't leave her master unprotected. Her own bond would ensure his safety and happiness. She would contact him first thing the next day.

[b:900e157f56]*SNAP-TINGLE*[/b:900e157f56] aroused Cyrilynn from her shared mediations with Serai and her disciplined state-of-mind allowed the ease of opening up to the method of communication with little trouble. [i:900e157f56]"Yes, Julius?"[/i:900e157f56] She waited for her masters acknowledgement. His contact was brief, the commission concise enough in scope but little enough in detail. [i:900e157f56]"Gabriel will be contacting you soon. I would be pleased if you would cooperate with him in everything that would complete this task for me."[/i:900e157f56] The Tzimisce gave a single nod of her head in acquiesence, forgetting that the wizard couldn't see the gesture.

[i:900e157f56]"As you wish...Julius. I have a request to make of you. I would like to make Serai my childe but I realize this would detache her from your sphere of influence. I would not place your interests in jeopardy if you feel that this would compromise you."[/i:900e157f56] There was a significant pause as if the Tremere was pondering all aspects of the request.

[i:900e157f56]"I regret to say that now is not an appropriate time, Cyrilynn. This mission requires your complete and undivided attention and a newly made vampire would be in need of your supervision for a length of time. I suggest we review your petition once you and the Venture have fulfilled this endeavor."[/i:900e157f56] The denial made a great deal of sense to the assassin, for this would have been her first childe. As Julius Darrant would be more experienced in that area than herself, she respected his refusal all the more.

She gave a brief report of having settled her affairs here and she would be standing by awaiting her new partner's bidding. When contact was broken, she finished the trance session, then began to tell Serai of the delay in their plans and why. Surprisingly, the ghoul was quite understanding and unconcerned about the postponement. She seemed content enough for now.